Sir Francis FORTESCUE of Salden

Born: ABT 1563

Died: 1649

Father: John FORTESCUE of Salden (Sir Chancellor of the Exchequer)

Mother: Cecily ASHFIELD

Married: Grace MANNERS 1589

Children:

1. Mary FORTESCUE (C. Shrewsbury)

2. John FORTESCUE of Salden (Bt)

3. Robert FORTESCUE

4. Gilbert FORTESCUE

5. William FORTESCUE

6. Adrian FORTESCUE

7. Francis FORTESCUE

8. Roger FORTESCUE

9. Son FORTESCUE

10. Frances FORTESCUE

11. Dorothy FORTESCUE

12. Catherine FORTESCUE

13. Dau. FORTESCUE

The details in this biography come from the History of Parliament, a biographical dictionary of Members of the House of Commons.

Born ABT 1563, firsst surv. son of John Fortescue of Salden by his first wife Cecily, dau. of Edmund Ashfield of Ewelme, Oxon.; brother of Thomas and William. Educ. sp. adm. I. Temple 1580. Married Grace, dau. of John Manners of Haddon Hall, Derbys., 8s. 5da. KB 1603. Suc. fa. 1607. Commr. musters, Bucks. 1596; j.p.q. and custos rot. 1600; esquire of the body to Queen Elizabeth; surveyor, Bucks. 1606, sheriff 1608-9.

Fortescue owed his parliamentary seats to his family's standing in the county. In 1597 he was named to a committee concerning armour and weapons (8 Nov), and in the following Parliament he was appointed to the committee on privileges and returns (31 Oct). As knight for Buckinghamshire in 1601 he was eligible to serve on committees concerning the order of business (3 Nov) and monopolies (23 Nov). On 30 Nov he was granted leave to depart.

Little information has been found about his earlier years. He may have been the Francis Fortescue who served in the Earl of Leicester's train in the Netherlands. By 1596 his father was seeking on behalf of Francis and himself a grant of the bailiwick of Wychwood forest in Oxfordshire. Two years earlier, Francis had acquired a lease of three royal hundreds in Newport, Buckinghamshire. Fortescue's marriage linked his family with that of the earls of Rutland. His father-in-law Sir John Manners not only took over the education of one of his children, but was also a candid counsellor in the years following his succession to his father, as when in 1608 he advised him ‘not to be noted as a man opposed to the King's proceedings’. In 1612 Fortescue appears on a list of Oxfordshire recusants, ‘and most of the officers under him ... convicted recusants or non-communicants’. His stepmother made no provision for any member of the Fortescue family in her will, proved 1620. By 1621 he was disposing of his properties, several of them to Sir George Villiers, later Duke of Buckingham. He died apparently intestate 29 Jan 1624, and administration of his goods was granted to his son and heir John, 4 Mar the same year. An inquisition post mortem was taken at Buckingham 25 Sep.

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